China Economy Forum

[grey boy 2]

China continues to be "bright spot" in global economy: IMF - People's Daily Online July 21, 2011

China contributed significantly to the global economic growth during the financial crisis and the trend is expected to continue, according to a report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday.

The Executive Directors of the IMF believed that "expansionary policies in China during the crisis had played an important role in bolstering global stability and growth, and expected China' s positive externalities to continue, especially for regional economies," said the IMF in its annual assessment of the Chinese economy.

"A major disruption in China' s so-far-steady growth would have material adverse consequences for the rest of the world," said the Washington based international financial institution.

It noted that China' s economy remains on a solid footing, propelled by vigorous domestic and external demand.

"Chinese economy will continue to be a 'bright spot' in the global growth," Nigel Chalk, Senior Advisor of the IMF's Asia and pacific Department and Mission Chief for China, told reporter during a conference call.

"We do see the growth is very healthy, and inflation is declining," chalk added.

"China' s near-term growth prospects continue to be vigorous and are increasingly self-sustained, underpinned by structural adjustment," revealed the report.

According to the IMF projection, Chinese economy will grow 9.6 percent in 2011 and 9.5 percent in 2012.

In 2010, the world second largest economy grew 10.3 percent, which topped the major economies in the world.

Still, it is facing challenges, some of which are in relation with the crisis tackling measures.

On the risk side, the IMF sees inflation, asset price increases and rapid credit growth in banking systems are the major threats.

"While inflation is expected to subside reflecting ongoing monetary policy tightening, upside risks remain, in particular from higher food and commodity prices," it noted. "Asset price developments and continued rapid credit growth, coupled with global liquidity conditions, pose policy challenges."

The fund praised the actions taken by the Chinese government to cool down rising property prices, emphasizing that any long-term solution to property bubbles would need to involve a significantly higher cost of capital, financial development, and higher real estate taxation.

It suggests that the current environment calls for a further tightening of macroeconomic policies.

In the longer-term, the 187-member global lender also noted that the acceleration of China' s economic transformation toward a more inclusive and balanced growth model will improve the welfare of the Chinese people and contribute to sustained and balanced global growth.

On the spillovers of the Chinese economy to the outside world, the fund noted that China will continue to be a positive driver of the global growth. This is the first time that the fund conducted such assessment of the Chinese economy,

Meanwhile, it pointed out that "a combination of currency appreciation and reforms to rebalance the growth model, together, would yield substantial benefits for both China and other countries."

Moreover, the fund welcomed China' s generous contributions to low-income countries in both financial and technical assistance.

Source:Xinhua

 

[grey boy 2]

China's CPI growth may fall to 4 pct by year end: bank report - People's Daily Online July 22, 2011

China's consumer prices will likely fall in the second half of the year, trimming growth of the consumer price index (CPI) to 4 percent by the year's end, the Bank of Communications said in a report Thursday.

The bank forecast the rise of CPI, the main gauge of inflation, would be controlled at around 5.2 percent from a year earlier this year.

The report attributed the weakening inflation mainly to tighter liquidity, slower economic growth, lower international commodity prices and adequate grain supplies.

However, "there is limited room for moderation in inflation this year and long-term pressure of price increases still exist," said the bank's chief economist Lian Ping.

China still faces imported inflation as crude oil prices will probably stay high as well as long-term pressure of price increases due to higher labor costs and material costs,he said.

China's inflation escalated to the highest level in three years in June with the CPI jumping 6.4 percent year on year, well above the government's target of 4 percent for this year.

CPI's growth may ease to 3 percent in the middle of next year if no sudden factors emerge both at home and abroad, the report added.

The report also predicted the country's economy would expand by around9.5 percent for the year, with little risk of a hard landing.

China may lift banks' reserve requirement ratio another once or twice this year, with 0.5 percentage points each, the report said, adding that chances of interest rates hikes would be slim.

Foreign exchange reserves will hit 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of the year, and the value of the yuan will appreciate by 5 percent against the U.S. dollar this year, the report added.

Housing prices will moderate but in a limited range, the report said.

Source:Xinhua

Source:Xinhua

 

[grey boy 2]

China discovers world's second largest molybdenum deposit in east China - People's Daily Online July 22, 2011

China has discovered its largest molybdenum deposit containing 2.2 million tonnes of the silvery metal, which ranks the second largest in the world, in east China's Anhui Province.

Anhui Geology and Mineral Resources Bureau estimate the deposit in Jinzhai County has 1.275 billion tonnes of ore which contains 2.2 million tonnes of molybdenum, said Wu Yulong, head of the bureau.

The grade of the ore is 0.157 percent. The deposit's total value is more than 600 billion yuan (93 billion U.S. dollars), Wu said.

The deposit can be exploited for more than 100 years at a capacity of 10 million tonnes of ore disposed annually, which can go a long way towards transforming the backward county into an industrial hub, Wu said.

The world's largest molybdenum mine is the Climax Mine in Colorado, the United States, with a reserve of over 3 million tonnes.

Before the discovery of the new deposit, China's largest deposit was in Luanchuan County of central China's Henan Province containing of 2.06 million tonnes of molybdenum.

Molybdenum, a non-renewable strategic resource, is widely used in the metallurgical sector as well as chemical, machinery, aeronautical and lubricant fields.

Source: Xinhua

 

[grey boy 2]

Circular economy investment up - People's Daily Online July 26, 2011

Workers lay solar panels on a roof at Nanjing South Railway Station. China is giving attention to reducing energy consumption in industrial production. Dong Jinlin / for China Daily

The Chinese government will double its investment in the circular economy this year to 2 billion yuan ($300 million) to support the national policies of energy conservation and emission reduction, a senior official said on Monday.

The figure was provided by He Bingguang, a director-general level official at the department of resource conservation and environmental protection of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The NDRC will use financial support and tax breaks to draw investment into the circular (recycling) economy, which will benefit companies and society, He said.

Most of the spending will go into the construction of industrial parks, the transformation of urban mining industries, clean production, food waste recycling and staff development, He said.

The major part of the investment will be used in the industrial sector, said Zhou Changyi, director general of the department of energy conservation and resources utilization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Zhou said eliminating obsolete production capacity and controlling energy-intensive, polluting industries will remain the major tasks in the next five years.

According to He, China achieved much in the energy-conservation sector during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) and the country will step up its efforts to cut carbon emissions and save energy during the current five-year plan.

The circular economy concept has three basic principles: recycle, re-use and reduce.

The circular economy is a national strategy in China, said He. "No other country has given it such a high priority.

"We are now filing and summarizing the 60 cases of successful development modes of the circular economy in the past five years and will publish the final report in two months."

The NDRC has established 178 demonstration units since 2005 to implement circular-economy projects, and about 1,300 companies have joined the program.

The official said the results are good examples not only for domestic industries but also for foreign countries.

China has a State-level circular economic pilot area in Chadamu in Qinghai province, covering 256,000 square kilometers. The project includes 15 programs dealing with environmental protection and ecological construction.

Many coal mines are applying the circular economy concept under the central government's guidance.

Huaibei Mining Group, a coal company in Anhui province, has won approval for five Clean Development Mechanism projects that will recycle the industrial waste of coal production.

Wang Mingsheng, president of the company, said depending on coal production to expand the industrial chain is the company's key strategy to grow stronger, and during the transformation, the circular economy will play an essential role.

The cumulative value of the circular economy industry was 1 trillion yuan as of the end of 2010, and it is forecast to grow at least 15 percent annually during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, said He.

"The country will focus on the application of the circular economy concept in industry, agriculture, services and green consumption," He said. "The policy will be implemented at all stages of the production, distribution and consumption processes."

However, China will still pay the most attention to reducing energy consumption in industrial production.

According to He, the development plan for the circular economy for the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the first five-year program for the circular economy, will be published by the end of the year. The plan will focus on curbing industrial energy consumption.

Source:China Daily

 

[grey boy 2]

That's rich: The wealthy spend more for luxury - People's Daily Online July 26, 2011

A Louis Vuitton shop in Nanjing. Prices for luxury products rose faster than overall inflation, the Hurun Report said. Provided to China Daily

China's wealthiest people have been under a bit of pressure from inflation, with the costs of luxury products and services up 7.73 percent year-on-year as of June, the Hurun Luxury Consumer Price Index (LCPI) released on Monday showed.

The figure was 1.3 percentage points higher than the official consumer price index (CPI), which stood at 6.4 percent in June.

Based on statistics gathered between June 1, 2010, and June 1, 2011, the index unveiled in the Hurun Report measures changes in the prices paid by affluent consumers for a basket of 61 luxury goods and services in nine categories, such as the well-known Chanel and Louis Vuitton brands.

The latest year's rise was, however, smaller than that in the previous 12-month period, which saw an explosive 11.3 percent increase.

The only category that was cheaper this time around was high-end furniture, down by 12.2 percent, mainly due to a fall in the price of redwood, a dark wood popular with wealthy Chinese consumers.

Among the nine surveyed categories, jet and yacht prices recorded the greatest rise, surging 20.1 percent year-on-year, followed by cosmetics and accessories with a 16.7 percent gain.

The British yacht brand Sunseeker now sells its Manhattan 73 model for 31.4 million yuan ($4.87 million) after taxes, freight and all options, up about 24.6 percent year-on-year.

Demand for "super toys" lifted prices in these categories, said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report. "The appreciation of the euro and British pound against the yuan may both have contributed to the price increase," he said.

As the index showed, in the past year, the euro appreciated 11.7 percent against the yuan. For the British pound, the change was 8 percent.

Private jet rental fees took off, too.

"For example, a Beijing-Shanghai return trip on a US-manufactured Gulfstream G550, capable of seating 16 people, now costs 276,500 yuan, up about 15.6 percent," said Hoogewerf.

Luxury alcohol and tobacco prices rose 9.2 percent. And a bottle of 30-year-old vintage Moutai, a Chinese liquor, now costs 20,580 yuan, up 60.8 percent.

Rich Chinese consumers remained thirsty for Bordeaux wines, with a case of six bottles of Chateau Lafite 1982 rising to 445,186 yuan, up about 29.3 percent.

The figures also showed that the Chinese government's measures to cool down the property market have had some impact in the luxury bracket. The price increase slowed from last year's 56.4 percent to 14.4 percent this year.

Although the Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB model cost 4.14 percent more this year, prices of luxury cars were up just 1.5 percent, compared with 3.1 percent last year.

Tang Yuan, 30, runs a shoe company in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, that makes an average annual profit of about $30 million. He buys luxury cars such as BMWs and Porsches on a yearly basis.

"I have heard that BMW is raising the prices for some of its vehicles. Prices for Porsche vehicles are also said to be going up at the dealer's level," said Tang.

"But it will have no influence on my purchase plans."

Source:China Daily

 

[grey boy 2]

Offshore financial assets expand 7% to $4.4t 2011-07-27

SHANGHAI - China's offshore financial assets rose 7 percent in the year to March to $4.4 trillion, primarily propelled by rising foreign-exchange reserves.

According to the nation's balance sheet of foreign-exchange assets and liabilities, also known as the International Investment Position, offshore financial liabilities increased 5 percent to $2.5 trillion as of the end of March. That resulted in net assets of $1.9 trillion, according to a statement on the website of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on Tuesday

An advertisement for exchange services for China's renminbi, or yuan, the US dollar and the euro at a money exchange in Hong Kong. [Photo/Agencies]

It was the first time that SAFE, manager of China's $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves, updated the figures on a quarterly basis. Previously, the balance sheet was only released annually.

"China's overseas financial assets and liabilities have increased constantly over the past few years, boosted by increased foreign-exchange reserves and overseas investment," said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist with Industrial Bank Co Ltd.

"It is a result of China's increased forays into international markets." The International Investment Position reflects a country's stock of financial assets and liabilities to outside nations. Combined with the balance of international payments, it shows a country's complete international trade and investment flows.

China's current-account surplus - the broadest measure of trade with the world - narrowed 21 percent to $28.8 billion in the first quarter, according to SAFE's revised figures published in May.

The capital-account surplus, which measures the net capital inflow, widened 41 percent from a year earlier to $86.1 billion during the same period.

Reserve assets, including foreign-exchange reserves, gold and special drawing rights, remained the biggest portion of the $4.4 trillion in financial assets, or 71 percent, unchanged from the end of 2010.

Reserve assets increased $201.4 billion in the first quarter, including $197.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves, to $3.1 trillion.

"Foreign-exchange reserves are still the main channel through which China's overseas financial assets increase," said Ding Zhijie, dean of the School of Banking and Finance at the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics.

China's foreign reserves, now the world's biggest, have surged in recent years, supported by long-term capital- and current-account surpluses.

Ding added that judging from SAFE's figures, the country has done a good job in investing its foreign reserves in the first quarter.

Out of the $197.3-billion increase in foreign reserves in the first quarter, $138 billion was generated from net capital inflows, Ding said.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2011-07/27/content_12989959.htm

 

[grey boy 2]

Lift-off for new Tibet carrier - People's Daily Online July 27, 2011

Stewardesses from Tibet Airlines Co Ltd pose before the carrier's maiden flight at Lhasa Gonggar Airport. The company plans to offer four services a day connecting Lhasa, Ngari and Chengdu, in Sichuan province. (China Daily Photo)

Tibet Airlines Co Ltd (TAC) took to the skies on Tuesday, as the highest region of China prepares to welcome more domestic and international visitors.

The airline was certified to conduct commercial flights on the same day.

The carrier's only aircraft, an Airbus A319 that was delivered on July 2, flew from Lhasa to Ngari, a city in the west of the region.

TAC plans to offer four services a day connecting Lhasa, Ngari and Chengdu, in Sichuan province. Each flight will take about two hours.

TAC is based at the Lhasa Gonggar Airport, which at an elevation of 3,600 meters is one of the world's highest civilian airports.

Cheng Hui, executive director of Tibet Airlines said TAC is seeking permission for non-stop Lhasa-Beijing flights that it aims to launch by the end of the year.

There are no direct services between the two cities at present, so the flying time is about six hours, with a stopover in Chengdu or Chongqing. The non-stop flight will only take about four hours, Chen said.

"We should be the first choice for passengers to or from Lhasa," Chen told China Daily.

TAC also hopes to expand into Europe.

"Tibet is attractive to European travelers and we will have the ability to operate international routes in three years," Chen said.

Statistics from the China Tibet Tourism Bureau show that 6,400 foreign visitors came to Tibet in the first quarter. The region had 228,000 visitors in 2010.

However, the 16 air routes now available to Tibet, including an international link between Lhasa and Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, cannot meet increasing foreign demand for seats.

Liu Yanping, general manager of Tibet Airlines, said the carrier also wants to have direct routes to Europe within four or five years.

The airline plans to have about 20 aircraft by 2015 and routes serving key cities around the nation in the next year, said Liu. Flights to South Asia and Southeast Asia are expected by 2013.

TAC ordered three A319s, and the other two are scheduled for delivery in Lhasa in August and September.

Tibet Airlines' A319s accommodate 128 passengers in a two-class configuration, with eight seats in premium and 120 in economy class.

Flying above the roof of the world requires more powerful engines, and Airbus modified its engines to TAC's specifications, said Thorsten Eckhoff, who works at Airbus in customer support.

The systems on the A319s were also modified to supply oxygen for 55 minutes, compared with the usual time of 22 minutes for aircraft that don't serve the plateau region, Tao Wenge, press and information director of Airbus China Ltd, said.

Airbus set up a customer service office in Lhasa in June to offer on-the-spot technical assistance, he added.

Source:China Daily

 

[grey boy 2]

BBC News - Nissan planning to invest $7.8bn in China by 2015 26 July 2011

Nissan has already it will look to emerging markets for growth

Nissan Motor has said it plans to invest 50bn yuan ($7.8bn; £4.7bn) in China, the world's biggest car market.

Dongfeng Motor, Nissan's joint-venture in China, hopes to sell 2.3 million cars by 2015, up from 1.3 million last year.

"The development of the Chinese market for us is making Nissan less dependent on one region, or one country," chief executive Carlos Ghosn said.

Nissan has 6% of the Chinese car market - and is aiming for 10%.

To reach its sales target, Dongfeng will launch about 30 new products, including an electric vehicle under the brand name Venucia.

Nissan also aims to have 2,400 Dongfeng dealerships in the country by 2015, up from 1,400 now.

"We have no restriction, no limit," Mr Ghosn said. "Whatever we are ready to do worldwide, we will do it in China."

China is already the largest market for Nissan

 

[grey boy 2]

Carbon intensity to be cut by 17% by 2015 - People's Daily Online July 29, 2011

China will release detailed plans on ensuring that its goal for reducing carbon intensity from 2011 to 2015 is attainable, and it has started looking at technical options for cutting carbon dioxide emissions after 2020.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Wednesday at a conference that a comprehensive plan to allow China to meet its objective - laid out in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) - of reducing carbon intensity by 17 percent reduction will be released soon.

China has set a target to cut its energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed for each unit of GDP) by 16 percent and reduce its carbon intensity (the amount of carbon emitted for each unit of GDP) by 17 percent from 2011 to 2015.

"The targets surely need to be handed over to local governments, and a specialized blueprint for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions is a necessity," said Su Wei, director-general of the Department of Climate Change of the NDRC.

According to a draft plan released in January, the areas will be divided into five types with various energy intensity reduction goals ranging from 10 percent to 18 percent.

The target is a step in the government's pledge to cut carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

The NDRC has also begun working out ways to attain further, large-scale reductions of carbon dioxide emissions after 2020.

Xie said that China considers carbon capture and storage (CCS) an important technical means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the next few decades, and that the country should already be working toward the development of the emerging technology.

CCS development faces great uncertainties worldwide because of the high costs and safety concerns, and several projects in developed countries were halted last year.

Despite the challenges, China won't rule out CCS as a key technical option in the future, but its use will depend on its competitiveness and the global demands for emissions reduction, he added.

Xie called for international collaboration in research and technology transfers from developed countries.

China has set targets to boost its non-fossil-fuel use to 15 percent of energy consumption by 2020, and many obsolete and inefficient coal-fired power plants have been closed.

However, coal remains the primary source of energy in China, the world's largest consumer of coal, with more than 70 percent of the country's energy consumption depending on it.

Foreign companies count on China to take a leading role in the commercialization of CCS, but according to Su, China sees CCS mainly as a means of reducing carbon dioxide after 2020 and 2030.

Source: Xinhua

 

[Xi'an_ist]

Cutting-Edge Catch-UP

Wandong ranks sixth in the world for enterprises specializing in radiation equipment. Provided to China Daily

Chinese medical equipment companies are now more than a match for their western counterparts

Ten years ago, Xie Yufeng, vice-president and chief engineer at Beijing Wandong Medical Equipment Co, slept little and ate poorly trying to lead a team of six engineers in figuring out why their X-ray machine was incapable of withstanding the same amount of voltage and current as Western X-ray machines.

"We went through every part of our equipment, many times, and we thought it should have been totally on par with (equipment used in Western hospitals at the time)," Xie says. "But we just could not do it. It was very disappointing."

Since the middle of the 1990s, the Chinese development of medical equipment has sounded very similar to Xie's story.

Even 15 years back, Chinese companies were still analyzing and copying first-generation equipment that used cathode ray tubes when Western engineers were beginning to use liquid crystal displays in third-generation medical photographic equipment.

But today, Chinese medical equipment companies such as Wandong, Xie says, have caught up with Western medical equipment technology and are starting to compete with Western companies for sales to hospitals in China.

One reason why China is placing more emphasis on innovation in the medical equipment industry are the staggering sales figures in recent years.

The country's medical device sales reached 120 billion yuan (12.9 billion euros) in 2010, up 23 percent from the previous year, according to the China Association for Medical Devices Industry, though industry analysts say foreign companies currently control nearly 70 percent of China's high-end medical device market.

And there lies the niche for Chinese companies - targeting the low end markets - as well as a major opportunity for Wandong.

According to a report titled "The Top 10 Competitiveness Enterprises in China's Medical Devices Industry during 2009-2010" by the Shanghai Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Wandong ranked sixth in the world for enterprises specializing in radiation equipment. No Chinese company had been listed before.

Wandong is the first medical equipment company in China, established in 1955, the largest Chinese medical equipment manufacturer and has more than 1,000 workers. Headquartered in Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park in northwestern Beijing, the company produces 6,000 sets of X-ray equipment and 100 sets of nuclear magnetic resonance equipment a year, making Wandong the second most productive radioautography equipment maker in the world.

It became the first listed Chinese medical equipment company, back in 1997.

Wandong is currently working to make its devices more affordable for most Chinese hospitals, especially walk-in clinics and hospitals in the countryside and in towns.

"Imported devices are way too expensive for most hospitals and clinics in China," Xie says.

He says that some imported medical devices can reach as high as 2 million yuan.

Once Wandong masters how to make the equipment, prices for its products can cost as little as half that, Xie says.

"Foreign equipment sells expensively in China because developers hold exclusive rights and thus it costs much less for our clients when we acquire or develop similar techniques," Xie says.

In 2000, Wandong set up the biggest Chinese imaging technology research and development center in Beijing. The company has invested almost 500 million yuan in the center, which employs 280 engineers.

Wandong cooperates with top hospitals in China, such as Beijing Tongren Hospital, Xuanwu Hospital and Capital Medical University by running the joint clinical research centers.

One example of the benefits of the cooperation happened recently, according to Wandong officials. In the neurology department lab at Xuanwu Hospital, doctors were befuddled in trying to superimpose photos of arteries and veins onto one picture.

Patients had to suffer through a number of pictures for doctors to reference but after communicating with the doctors, Wandong's engineers created software that recorded the circulatory system at once.

"It takes only a week for us to solve the problem, which doctors thought was impossible," Xie says. "To combine our production and research to the practical work is the best way to catch up with Western competitors."

Wandong, because it is a Chinese company, says it has also benefited from its understanding of the needs and wants of Chinese people and its hands-on experience with local hospitals and clinics.

In the last five years, Wandong has successfully bid for 98 government procurement programs and provided almost 6,500 units of medical equipment nationwide. About 700 engineers from Wandong are working for thousands of local hospitals and clinics, the company says, and that has reduced the cost of its service and prices for its products compared with prices from foreign competitors.

Source: Chinadaily

 

[Martian2]

Yani Tseng is 2011 Women's British Open Golf Champion.

Yani Tseng wins Women's British Open by 4 strokes - News | FOX Sports on MSN

"Yani Tseng wins Women's British Open
Associated Press
Updated Jul 31, 2011 2:32 PM ET

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP)

Yani Tseng became the youngest woman to win a fifth major title after capturing the Women's British Open by four strokes over Brittany Lang on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Taiwanese shot a 3-under 69 to total 16-under 272 after trailing overnight leader Caroline Masson of Germany by two strokes entering the final round.

The top-ranked Tseng claimed her second successive British title, while Masson crashed to a closing 78 to finish in a share of fifth place.

''It's very special to win here at Carnoustie where so many great players have made history,'' Tseng said. ''I was a little nervous before the start, but then I hit a good tee shot and I felt good. I feel that, having been in this position in a major a few times before, I am getting more mature and can handle the pressure better.''

Tseng dropped a shot at the first with three putts from 30 feet, missing a 3-footer for par. She birdied the third with a pitching wedge to 2 feet and the long sixth with a chip to 5 feet from just short of the green to be out in 35.

Playing alongside Masson, who was out in 39, Tseng had taken a firm grip by the turn. She was just short of the green off the tee at the par-4 11th and took two putts for a birdie, but she then dropped a shot at two successive holes. She hit an 8-iron over the back of the green at 12 and then hit the pin off the tee on the short 13th, but her ball came to rest on the edge of a bunker. She had to stand in the sand to play her second.

Tseng birdied the long 14th, where she hit her 4-iron second to 20 feet, then closed with two birdies, holing from 20 feet on the 17th and hitting a majestic 9-iron to three feet at the last.

Masson also finished with two birdies but had fallen into the pack, dropping four shots in the first three holes on the way home.

Lang shot a closing 67 to finish on 276, one ahead of Sweden's Sophie Gustafson, who had a final round 68. Korean Amy Yang, alone in fourth, also posted a 67. (article continues)"

 

[Martian2]

China's Sun Yang breaks Australian great Grant Hackett's 10-year-old mark in 1,500 meters - The Washington Post

"China’s Sun Yang breaks Australian great Grant Hackett’s 10-year-old mark in 1,500 meters
By Associated Press, Published: July 31

( Michael Sohn / Associated Press ) - China’s Sun Yang shows the gold medal he won in the men’s 1,500m Freestyle event at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Shanghai, China, Sunday, July 31, 2011.

SHANGHAI — The swimming world championships ended with a jolt Sunday when emerging Chinese star Sun Yang broke the oldest world record in the sport — Australian great Grant Hackett’s 10-year-old mark in the 1,500 meters.

Sun was more than two seconds off Hackett’s pace with four laps to go in the marathon in the pool, but ignored fatigue and accelerated on the final two laps to finish in 14 minutes, 34.14 seconds, improving on Hackett’s mark of 14:34.56 set at the 2001 worlds.

“I was not obsessed with the world record before the final, because I wanted to focus on my plan,” Sun said. “My goal is to win the gold.”

After the race, Sun was congratulated on weibo — China’s version of Twitter — by Liu Xiang, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, a former world record holder in the 110-meter hurdles and a sports hero in China.

“I think Liu Xiang created history in 2004. I watched the games on TV and after he won the gold medal, I was very excited. I thought someday, I will be like him,” Sun said.

The crowd at the Oriental Sports Center provided loud support over the final laps, erupting into more joy when the clock stopped four-tenths of a second inside Hackett’s mark.

Fifth-place finisher Chad La Tourette of the United States said he was “just happy to be a part of it.”

“I knew he was going to be close at the 800,” La Tourette said. “That was a fantastic swim and it really just kind of sets himself apart as a once-in-a-generation type swimmer like Grant was.”

It was only the second world record to fall in swimming since high-tech bodysuits were banned 19 months ago — and Hackett’s record had been the only mark to withstand the record deluge during the polyurethane era of 2008 and 2009.

American all-around star Ryan Lochte set the first world record since the return to textile suits at this meet Tuesday in the 200 individual medley.

The two world records set in this eight-day meet were a sharp contrast from the 43 marks that dropped at the last worlds in Rome two years ago.

The 19-year-old Sun also won the 800 free earlier in the meet, plus a silver in the 400 and a bronze with China’s 4x200 relay squad. He is coached by Hackett’s former mentor, Dennis Cotterell.

Sun had already come close to Hackett’s mark when he won at the Asian Games last November in Guangzhou, China, in 14:35.43.

Ryan Cochrane of Canada wasn’t far behind Sun for the first half of the race, then dropped back to finish second in 14:44.46, while Gergo Kis of Hungary took the bronze in 14:45.66.

Upon breaking Hackett’s mark, an exhausted Sun celebrated mildly, then bowed to the crowd. Later, nearly all the fans in attendance sang along to the Chinese anthem.

“I still think I have things to improve, especially my mental state,” Sun said. 'After winning the gold medal, I think more and more people will pay more attention to me. There’s no doubt I will feel more pressure but I’m still young and I don’t want to be burdened by gigantic pressures. So next year, I will keep a relaxed mindset so I can handle future races.'”

 

[Martian2]

Using cutting edge technology, HTC has released the all-new EVO 3D device. With a stunning 4.3-inch QHD display that provides vivid images, fluid video and crisp website browsing, the phone also captures your photo and video in 3D. Weighing only 170 grams (6.0 ounces), the device has a full HD camera with zero shutter lag and stereo sound recording, and HTC Sense even lets you stream photos or videos to your television via DLNA so that you can share special moments at home or with the world on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Caption source: HTC EVO 3D | Hypebeast)

HTC tops Q2 Android phone market in U.S. - CNA ENGLISH NEWS

"HTC tops Q2 Android phone market in U.S.
By Jeffrey Wu
2011/08/01 18:21:51

Taipei, Aug. 1 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. remained the top Android smartphone vendor in the United States in the second quarter, a U.S.-based research group said recently, as the company continued to benefit from its broad market coverage.

According to research group Nielsen, HTC's Android phones had a 14 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market in Q2, the most among all Android phone vendors.

Motorola was the second-largest Android phone maker with an 11 percent market share, followed by Samsung with 8 percent.

In January this year, HTC and the No. 1 U.S. telecom operator Verizon Wireless formalized a partnership to sell the world's first smartphone, the "HTC Thunderbolt," to complement the high-speed long-term evolution (LTE) network that Verizon launched in the United States in December last year.

Meanwhile, HTC's Inspire 4G smartphone is being sold by AT&T Inc., the second largest U.S. telecom, to meet consumer demand for the HSPA+ network, and its HTC EVO Shift 4G is being sold by Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 telecom carrier, for WiMAX network users.

The Thunderbolt, Inspire 4G, and EVO Shift 4G all use the Android operating system.

HTC's Windows Phone 7 devices also accounted for 6 percent of the U.S. market, giving the company a combined 20 percent smartphone market share in America, tied for second with Research in Motion (RIM).

Google's Android operating system claimed the largest share of the U.S. smartphone market with 39 percent in the second quarter, compared with 36 percent in the previous period.

Apple's iOS was in second place, with its share growing from 26 percent to 28 percent, while RIM's BlackBerry OS was down from 23 percent to 20 percent.

Microsoft's Windows and Nokia' Symbian also dropped to 9 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system, it has the highest market share of any smartphone vendor in the U.S."

 

[grey boy 2]

Huawei 'makes world's first cloud-computing smart phone' August 01, 2011

The connection between Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, China's biggest telecom equipment maker by revenue, and Italian Supercoppa (Italian Super Cup), does not only rest on the fact they share the same birth year.

Established in the southern coastal city of Shenzhen in 1987, Huawei has grown into a top-level telecom hardware giant that competes with the likes of Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson.

It is now drawing on the popularity of Italian Supercoppa with hundreds of millions Chinese soccer fans in the hope of promoting its cloud-computing smart phones.

These new handsets can provide easy downloads and enable the sharing of movies, electronic books and huge amounts of music, while backing up information on the cloud.

Cloud computing provides applications from a server that are executed and managed by a client's web browser. Any web-friendly device connected to the Internet may access the same pool of computing power, applications, and files in a cloud-computing environment. Data is centrally stored, so the user does not need to carry a storage medium such as a DVD or USB flash drive.

"Huawei is the first mobile phone manufacturer worldwide to introduce a cloud-computing-based smartphone. We want people to live and work on the cloud," Wan Biao, chief executive officer of Huawei Device Co Ltd, said at a Shanghai forum in July.

The company plans to invest about 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) to become the sole sponsor of the 2011 Italian Supercoppa. The soccer match between two top Italian teams A.C. Milan and Inter Milan will be held in Beijing's iconic Olympics stadium, the Bird's Nest, on Aug 6 and used for promotions throughout the year.

It will be the second time that Italian Supercoppa has come to China. On Aug 8, 2009, the competition drew about 73,000 football fans to the Bird's Nest and created record China sport event box office takings of 77 million yuan.

"Through this soccer match, we hope to reach 100 million Chinese people and let them know about Huawei's cloud computing smart phones," said Steven Yang, China president of Huawei Device Co Ltd.

Yang said the sponsorship of the Italian Super Cup demonstrates an important strategic step for Huawei Device, in that the company wants to build its brand recognition among ordinary people instead of just among telecom network operators.

"It will also lift the image of Huawei terminals on to the world stage," added Yang.

Huawei plans to own 10 flagship stores and 4,000 outlets in big Chinese cities by the end of this year in order to expand its distribution channels and make its phones available to more people. The company sold more than 5 million smart phones in the domestic market in the first half of this year. It expects sales of 7 million in the second half.

Victor Xu, chief marketing officer for Huawei's device business, said in early July that the company is likely to ship 20 million smart phones around the world in 2011, higher than a previous target of up to 15 million units. Huawei shipped about 3.3 million smart phones last year.

There are three major reasons behind Huawei smart phones' rapid growth, said Xiang Ligang, a Beijing telecoms expert who also runs an industry website.

"First, Huawei absorbs advanced technologies to make its phones. Second, it has a good relationship with global telecom operators because Huawei was a major equipment supplier for them. Third, Huawei mobile phones have very, very competitive prices," Xiang said.

Huawei produced its first mobile phone in 2003, when the company won a 3G network equipment contract in the United Arab Emirates. The local operator asked Huawei to develop 3G mobile phones for the network. The telecommunications terminal business experienced steady growth and contributed 30.8 billion yuan to Huawei's total sales of 185.2 billion yuan in 2010.

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, said in an internal meeting in early 2011 that Huawei should be "an important player" in the global handset market.

Source:China Daily

 

[Cambodia Spirit]

Made in China, loved everywhere

Product placement has long been ubiquitous in Hollywood movies. Everyone who watched the 1981 blockbuster E.T. remembers ET croaking out "Reese's pieces" while happily munching down the trail Elliot has left for him. In his later film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg made sure to include the Mercedes Benz logo in the close up shots of the SUV that Jeff Goldblum and his team use to explore the park.

But the latest Transformers movie, Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon, which opened in China in late July, breaks new ground in the product placement department by featuring four famous Chinese brands.

A TCL flatscreen TV makes a brief appearance in the film, while the spiky haired robot, Brains, transforms itself out of a Lenovo Edge Computer. The protagonist of the film, Sam, sports a T-shirt from Meters/Bonwe, a mid-level Chinese retailer with a large follower among hip, younger clothes buyers in China. And in one scene, a scientist says he needs to quickly finish his Yili Shuhua low-lactose milk first.

This development underscores how China is once again reinventing itself economically. The latest makeover involves moving from producing cheap clothing and toys to higher-end products. Companies like Lenovo, which lobbied hard for product placement in Transformers 3, are determined to compete globally on the basis of quality and brand name recognition.

Data on the Chinese economy clearly point to this shift in its manufacturing mix. According to a report, authored by Will Freeman of GaveKal Research in Beijing, the share of high-tech products in China's exports has risen from 19 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2009.

In the past, these high-tech exports consisted of products whose components, like computer motherboards, were made elsewhere, in South Korea and Japan, for example, to be assembled in China. That is no longer the case, for Suzhou has become a key production base for sophisticated X-ray printers and network routers and switches.

The GaveKal report shows that China's rapid emergence as an exporter of capital equipment, as opposed to primary and light manufactured goods. In fact, during the past decade, China's share of global exports of capital equipment has quadrupled, from 2 to 8 percent.

Finally, China is emerging as the new global renewable energy giant, too. In 2009, for example, it overtook the United States as the world's largest market for wind turbines, while State-owned power plants are competing to see who can build solar plants the fastest.

Indeed, Chinese wind turbine producers have now gone global in their sales efforts. A report in The New York Times, published in Nov 15, 2010, said Sinovel, a Beijing-based State-owned turbine producer, signed a contract with the Massachusetts Water Authority last year to build a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine.

The turbine will provide electricity for a wastewater pumping station in the Boston suburb of Charleston. The report also said that China's fifth largest wind turbine producer, Ming Yang Power Group, has set up a sales office in Dallas, Texas.

The Chinese government has long supported renewable energy through its "863 Program". Now, the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) calls for doing the same for higher-end capital equipment.

This trend will naturally raise new fears about Chinese economic competition in the US and Europe. But while some businesses in the West will undoubtedly be squeezed, the GaveKal report says that others will benefit from having access to lower cost capital equipment to boost their productivity. As Freeman was quoted as having said in a July 23 article in Toronto-based The Globe and Mail: "The story of Chinese export deflation is far from over."

Moreover, within China, the move to higher-end manufacturing will boost Chinese wages, thereby expanding the global consumption pie both for Chinese and Western companies.

In any case, China has no choice but to transform itself into a manufacturing power, because its low-wage cost advantage is being rapidly eroded. According to the Asia-focused investment and advisory company Intercedent, rising wages and the expected revaluation of the yuan means that mid-tier manufacturing wages in China will be equal to minimum wage levels in the US by 2017.

Once that happens, the production of cheap clothing, footwear and apparel will be repatriated back to developed countries or shift to newly emerging economies like Vietnam and Bangladesh, enabling the latter to develop more rapidly.

Thus the latest stage in China's rapid economic rise is surely a win-win for the aggregate world economy. And with the US becoming less and less governable by the day and Europe trapped in a common currency that it can neither retreat from nor manage effectively, the world economy needs a new leader and growth engine.

So expect to see more and more made-in-China products on movie screens.

The author is an American corporate trainer in China.

(China Daily 08/05/2011 page9)​